ARCHIE SHEPP — Blasé (review)

ARCHIE SHEPP — Blasé album cover Album · 1969 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
Sean Trane
Recorded in late 69 in Paris, Blasé is one of those BYG label albums, and generally the most appreciated from that series of releases. Featured in the one-day session is singer Jeanne Lee, Dave Burrell on piano, Malacchi Favors on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums, so it’s not like there was nobody hanging around in La Cité Des Lumières, around that time.

While the opening My Angel is of limited interest, but still enjoyable, the even-slower blues title track number is much more poignant and meaningful, but it’s nothing avant-garde either. And if you thought Blasé was slow, hang on tight to your chair, because the following Gilead is simply non-existent (dare I say clinically-dead?) in terms of beats per minutes.

On the flipside is the much-covered Sophisticated Lady, originally an Ellington piece, who opens on a dissonant sax, but soon enters the crooner realm, with the drums most likely purposely-recorded way too loud. The closing Touareg must the reason why this album gets mentioned in avant-garde circles, and indeed we’re hearing a free-jazz sax over unruly and relentless drums and fairly discreet bass until the last minutes.

Maybe a tad over-rated for this writer, the least we can say it that the album wears its name quite well, as it sounds so tired and even uninspired that the Blasé moniker is not even Cliché. Nothing unbearable, but kind of pointless, IMHO.
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